Harper gags Canadians with their own money

From the Real News Network:

There is a North-America wide strategy to take away the right to mass protest.

The New anti-Semitism: criticism of Israel

From Aljazeera English, a commentary on the quasi-Parliamentary committee's report about the supposed rise of anti-Semitism in Canada.

Anti-Semitism will always be with us because stupid, bigoted people will always be with us. But to attempt to change a definition of an abomination like anti-Semitism to fit political, evangelical or Christian Zionist ends is dangerous and profoundly stupid.

There is an element in the Canadian government who wish to support Israel, no matter what it does. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me. It also sounds like treason. The Harperites are trying to change the definition of that, too.

Canada clamps down on criticism of Israel

While the CPCCA's final report does contain some cases of real anti-Semitism, the committee has provided little evidence that anti-Semitism has actually increased in Canada in recent years. Instead, it has focused a disproportionate amount of effort and resources on what it calls a so-called "new anti-Semitism": criticism of Israel.

Indeed, the real purpose of the CPCCA coalition seems to be to stifle critiques of Israeli policy and disrupt pro-Palestinian solidarity organizing in Canada, including, most notably, Israeli Apartheid Week events. Many of the CPCCA's findings, therefore, must be rejected as both an attack on freedom of speech and freedom of protest, and as recklessly undermining the fight against real instances of anti-Semitism.

Post Office Matters

In the last few weeks, Canada Post workers started staging a series of rotating strikes across the country. They had been trying to negotiate with Canada Post management for quite a while on such matters as raises to cover the cost of living increases, sick leave etc. Essential services like social assistance cheques were still being delivered and mail was circulating, although slowly.

Canada Post responded by locking the workers out, thus shutting down the system completely.

Now Harper and his Con buddies have "stepped in" to order them back to work. With the "reverse Midas touch" that Harper has demonstrated so often and so well in the years he's occupied the throne, he has now caused negotiations to cease entirely.

Harper stepping in to fix anything is like setting an enraged bull elephant on the petunia beds, pretty much the same result of anything he and his colleagues have put their minds to (using the phrase loosely) in the last godawful five and a half years.

Bird and Fortune, two British comedians, discussed the privatization of the British post office in the early nineties, something that the howling nicompoops have avocated here in recent weeks.

Their conclusion? Privatizing the post office allows management to show their ruthlessness and greed, to say nothing of stupidity.

Ten minutes of wonderful dialogue.



Their site is here.

Harper's War Agenda

From Rabble.ca by Derrick O'Keeffe

Expanding foreign military bases serves Harper's war agenda

"Canadian fighter jets have flown more than 400 sorties over Libya thus far, and NATO's air campaign is intensifying. The Canadian planes have been operating from a NATO base in Italy. To fight wars from the air, you need to have the use of foreign bases.

Last week, Le Devoir broke the news that the Canadian government had completed agreements for new foreign bases in Jamaica and Germany, with talks ongoing to establish bases in Kuwait, Tanzania and several other countries."

The piece includes a link to the Canadian Peace Alliance and a statement against Canada's garrisoning of the planet.

"The Canadian Peace Alliance condemns the plans of the Harper government to establish new foreign military bases for Canada. This is a policy that has been in the works for some time but, like so much else about Canada's foreign policy, it was completely excluded from the discussion during the recent federal election

...The announcement about new foreign bases came at the same time as a request to keep Canadian Forces on the ground in Richelieu, Quebec to help with flood relief was being ignored. The Harper government continues to encourage costly and unnecessary deployments of the Forces abroad, while showing little interest in using its resources at home for disaster relief.

Foreign bases have nothing to do with Canadian security, and everything to do with the Harper government's desire to be able to participate in future military aggressions like the ones ongoing in Afghanistan and Libya."

Young woman urges a "Canadian Spring"

My admiration goes out to young people standing up to their elders (but rarely betters, whatever the Harper echo chamber may think of themselves) and their activism is one of the few things I can feel hopeful about in this era of unthinking Harperism.

Rogue page inspired by Arab uprising, wants Canadians to mobilize


During the throne speech of the new Harper "Majority" Regime - 40% of the vote, 25% of eligible voters - this young graduate who took a position as a page in the Senate, held up a home made red stop sign with the words "Stop Harper!". She was escorted from that august chamber - normally the meeting place of Harper-appointed yes-men and women - by a guy dressed in 18th century militaristic gear.

There was tut-tutting at the lack of security by a scared Con spokesman, his own insecurity whipped into view by the thought that a young woman armed with a sign was a danger to his own god-ordained right to dictate to Canadians what they had to do - or be charged with High Treason.

Funny how the Cons are all for freedom from dictators - or so they say - but can't see the autocratic agenda of their new Saviour is a danger to the country. Who, exactly, holds the treasonous agenda here?

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian War Crimes in Afghanistan

A lengthy, well-documented and detailed piece by Michael Keefer, professor at the University of Guelph, Ontario, on the complicity of Harper and his minions in Afghan detainee transfer to certain torture, deliberate blocking of information at the highest levels in the Canadian Forces and the Canadian government and outright lies from Harper's government when questioned by news and parliamentary committees about it.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Canadian War Crimes in Afghanistan

"...[A]ccording to law professor Amir Attaran, who has seen uncensored versions of the documents that the Harper government has so strenuously resisted sharing with Parliament, the paper trail is thoroughly incriminating. In March 2010 Attiran told CBC News: “If these documents were released [in full], what they will show is that Canada partnered deliberately with the torturers in Afghanistan for the interrogation of detainees […]. There would be a question of rendition and a question of war crimes on the part of certain Canadian officials. That’s what’s in these documents, and that’s why the government is covering up as hard as it can.”

This question hasn't even come up in this election campaign except by Jack Layton of the New Democratic Party (NDP) whose position all along has been against the war and Canada's part in it. For his efforts, his was given the name "Taliban Jack" by Harper Conservatives and their supporters.

Michael Keefer's conclusion:

"The clear pattern of intentionality revealed in the words and actions of senior Canadian government bureaucrats and senior military officers is both embarrassing (these people actually believe, despite copious evidence to the contrary, that torture produces real ‘intelligence’) and also a scandalous offence against the rule of law.

More scandalous still is the evidence that these people were acting on directives from Stephen Harper—that Harper knew perfectly well that the Afghan puppet-state tortures the prisoners handed over to it by the Canadian Forces, but nonetheless permitted the continuation of this system, and that he actually took charge of the program of lying about it. "

So much excellent writing about the contemptible Harper Government

As we limp our way toward another Harper minority government (or, may the gods forbid, a Harper majority), there is so much to read by some truly great bloggers.

James Laxer:

Ten compelling reasons to vote for Stephen Harper:

Stephen Harper - Sans moi, le deluge

Stephen Harper: Now He’s The Champion of National Unity

David Climenhaga and his Alberta diary.

Neil Kitson

Canada's 2011 Federal Election

Harper's government has been found in contempt of parliament, the first time that it has happened in any country with the parliamentary system. Stephen Harper and his merry band of loyal acolytes have tried to make it appear that the whole thing is about a budget, another blatant lie.

In the last election, people who had posted lawn signs for a Liberal candidate in London, Toronto and the Niagara Region of Ontario had the break lines cut on their cars. In the last couple of days, cars have been vandalized and houses spray- painted with graffiti, e.g. "Lie-beral scum". Liberal and NDP signs have been defaced or destroyed. One Liberal candidate in the riding west of Ottawa had one hundred of his signs spray-painted with the crosshairs of a gunsight, just like the unlovely Sarah Palin's tactics. These are not the tactics of the centrist or left-of-centre parties. Why would they deface their own signs? Some Con supporters suggest it's done to elicit sympathy for themselves.

Harper has made my skin crawl since I first saw him. With each following lie, dirty deal, corrupt official, attack ad and his blatant ignorance (if I'm being charitable) or breaking of our laws, he has become more nauseating and frightening.

Robert Kennedy Jr. blasts Harper

Some days the news is so depressing, the hypocrisy so thick and motives are so murky that it is hard work to see any light on the horizon at all.

And then this inspired piece from Robert Kennedy Jr. made me smile for one of the few times in the last five years when I consider the state of this country under Prime Minister Stephen Harper's malign influence.

Kennedy sees what we have running the place and isn't afraid to say it.

"...[C}anada['s] regulators announced last week they would reject efforts by Canada's right wing Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, to repeal a law that forbids lying on broadcast news."

There is already considerable leeway on "ads" during election campaigns. Basically, you're allowed to libel and slander to your heart's content. The HarperCons have taken it to new heights. They've launched attack ads without any official announcement of an election, delicately circumventing the financing rules and probably using taxpayer money to do it. But if they aren't election ads, then the Cons should be prosecuted under libel laws.

In my dreams...

But Robert Kennedy Jr. comes to the rescue again:

"...[H]arper, often referred to as 'George W. Bush's Mini Me,' is known for having mounted a Bush like war on government scientists, data collectors, transparency, and enlightenment in general. He is a wizard of all the familiar tools of demagoguery; false patriotism, bigotry, fear, selfishness and belligerent religiosity.

Harper's attempts to make lying legal on Canadian television is a stark admission that right wing political ideology can only dominate national debate through dishonest propaganda..."

Music to my ears, heard as a long gloomy winter is finally coming to an end...maybe. Weather gurus are forecasting a colder than usual spring.

Murray Dobbin: Canada in Afghanistan - the Big Lie

Our country's leaders are lying to themselves, to us and to the rest of the world. They implicate us in their lies, so, as Canadians, we become part of the big lie. If we refuse to swallow the lies or go along with them, we are called un-Canadian, unpatriotic or lovers of terrorists or terrorism. Just because lots of people sign on to the Big Lie doesn't make it true. Just because leaders of "democratic" governments skate over, ignore or refuse to see the illegality of their actions, it does not make them legal.

I always imagine Murray Dobbin standing on a mountaintop during a storm, calling out to Canadians to warn them of the danger they face - and very few can be bothered to listen.

Canada in Afghanistan - the Big Lie

Our tragic and pathetic Afghanistan adventure is a dramatic commentary on the state of Canadian politics and democracy. Despite all the evidence that continuing to stay in this benighted country is worse than pointless, despite the fact that the majority of Canadians want to get out sooner rather than later and despite the fact that even Stephen Harper recognizes that the Karzai regimen is one of the most repugnant and corrupt Canadians have ever been asked to support we are unable as a nation to extricate ourselves from this deadly mess.

In spite of all the blathering about the common sense of Canadians, politicians, except for New Democratic leader Jack Layton, who has never supported and does not support the Big Lie, do not listen to us. We are expected to pay up and shut up.

And our country is being ruined.

The Afghan war/occupation not only further corrupts and destroys Afghanistan; it corrupts Canadian politics by obliging everyone to be involved in a Big Lie. We have to lie about everything: the likelihood of improvement, the objectives of our partner, the US; the building of democracy, the role of oil and gas pipelines, the liberation of women, Afghanis’ attitude towards Canadian soldiers, our commitment to the Geneva Convention, and the story we tell Canadian soldiers about why they are there. Nothing but lies and everyone one of them corrosive of our political culture and international image.

Whistleblowers, whether they be diplomats like Richard Colvin, translators like Ahmadshah Malgarai, or members of JTF2, who report wrongdoing by members of the Canadian Armed Forces are ignored, bullied, or have their integrity or their motives questioned.

The legal maxim, "Cui bono?" or "Who benefited?" should indicate that a diplomat, translator or member of the armed forces is unlikely to advance his career if he exposes the wrongdoing of the government or military brass. Clearly the bureaucracies have much to lose if the truth is told and everything to gain if it is simply swept under the rug.

Dishonourable wars – and most are – dishonour everyone involved and make liars out of the most senior people justifying the conflict. This war is incredibly destructive not only of the country being attacked and occupied but it corrodes every Canadian institution involved: the military, the civil service, Parliament, political leaders, the media and those in academia recruited to supply justification for an unjustifiable war.

Galloway - 1. Harper and Kenney - 0.

George Galloway was in Calgary yesterday. His speech was sold out to a seven hundred and fifty seat house.

Before the event, he decided to visit Jason Kenney's constituency office. Kenney was in Ottawa.

Kenney, as Immigration Minister, tried to keep Galloway out of Canada under the pretense that he was a terrorist and terrorism supporter, a claim that was refuted by a judge in a sixty page decision.

Galloway wants to sue (I hope he wins big) with any money going to the Canadian antiwar movement.

From the Rabble.ca website and YouTube:

The New anti-Semitism and Harper Newspeak

Several Canadian MP's as well as other "lawmakers" from around the world "vow" to fight the "new" anti-Semitism, which is basically any criticism of Israeli government policies in the middle east.

Even our very own Dear Leader Harper "pledges ‘relentless’ stand against anti-Semitism". Fine on the face of it but it's Newspeak. He's redefined it to fit his own ideolological agenda and it should not be allowed to happen.

The old anti-Semitism is well known and well understood - hatred and persecution of Jews because they are Jews. That's it and it's repellent. To redefine it will give a legitimate cover to the real anti-Semites who will lump themselves in with people who criticize the racism of the present right-wing Israeli government.

This is a very dangerous practice.

The group Independent Jewish Voices and others have put together a video to resist the curtailment of free speech that Harper and others are trying to enshrine here in Canada. Scott Reid, M.P. for this area, has been a member of the of this group trying to redefine anti-Semitism for their own purposes. He appears at minutes 3:20 to 3:21, the person on the left with the little beard, red tie and Remembrance Day poppy.

Massive casualties

The commander of Canadian forces in Afghanistan has said that a "flurry" of activities will occur in the fall and into next year.

When I read this, my heart sank - just when I thought it couldn't sink any further.

'Massive activities' from Canadian troops coming in Afghanistan: Lieutenant-General

"There’ll be a flurry of military operations starting with the major ones this fall, (and) there’ll be other ones certainly in the winter and spring," said Lt.-Gen. Lessard, head of Canadian Expeditionary Force Command. "We’re ready to launch."

Massive activites will lead to massive casualties but they don't seem to care.

Then comes the usual crippled logic for the whole thing.

If Canadian troops do not improve conditions in the districts before leaving next year, their sacrifices since 2006 will have been wasted, he suggested.

I can't believe that anybody with more than two functioning neurons is still using that stupid justification for mass death - of civilians and of soldiers.

Canada and the F-35's

From the wonderful Dr. Neil Kitson and his blog Canadians in Afghanistan

Canada's Purchase of the F-35 explained

They also did a wonderful explanation of the subprime mortages.

IED attacks in Afghanistan from WikiLeaks info

Using the massive sea of data that WikiLeaks released, this very disturbing video was made of the escalation of IED attacks in Afghanistan since the invasion and occupation.



Canadians seem most disturbed by a report in the WikiLeaks info from September 3, 2006 that states that four Canadian soldiers were killed by "friendly" fire (they should really retire that description) - a bomb dropped by U.S. forces called in for air support. Soldiers who were there say, in conflicting reports, that one was killed while walking along a road while another says he was killed when sticking his head through a hatchway. Canadian military types at first denied that it was friendly fire, as if getting killed one way was somehow more honourable or worthwhile than getting killed another way. Families of the dead soldiers had to relive the whole thing again. And of course we still don't know.

The next day, a Canadian soldier was killed by a U.S. bomb. There doesn't seem to be any argument on that point.

With casualty numbers going through the roof, 414 soldiers this year so far with a total of nearly two thousand since 2001, with uncounted thousands of Afghan civilians dead, wounded or displaced, why is this war still being fought?

Worse still, what is being covered up by the Canadian government - the treatment of prisoners, the numbers of wounded in mind and body, the use of defense contractors, the cost of the whole thing - now and in the future?

Who knows? Harper is taking a summer holiday. Nice that he can, that he has an income, a house that's safe to live in, in a country that hasn't been invaded by people with too many weapons and no plan.

Canada exports death around the world

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More of the Harper government policies that are making us look really, really good.

From McClatchy:

Lobbyists push use of deadly asbestos in developing nations

A global network of lobby groups has spent nearly $100 million since the mid-1980s to preserve the international market for asbestos, a known carcinogen that's taken millions of lives and is banned or restricted in 52 countries, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found in a nine-month investigation.

Backed by public and private money and aided by scientists and friendly governments, the groups helped facilitate the sale of 2.2 million tons of asbestos last year, mostly in developing nations. Anchored by the Montreal-based Chrysotile Institute, the network stretches from New Delhi to Mexico City to the city of Asbest in Russia's Ural Mountains. Its message is that asbestos can be used safely under "controlled" conditions

Early in Harper's tenure, an international group met to discuss banning the mining and export of asbestos around the world. Most countries had already done so. The group expected that Canada would join them. The Harper government's representatives showed up at the meeting, were rude and dismissive and completely surprised one of the observers there by their boorish behaviour. That didn't surprise me, but the rest of the world hadn't got the message yet about Our Glorious Leader and Our Glorious Leader's new regime.

I sent the then-Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn an email expressing my surprise that asbestos was being mined and exported given that its use just about everywhere in Canada was banned. I received no reply. (Whoa! Who would have expected that?)

But I must admit that I thought our representatives actually represented us in those days instead of channeling Harperite policies to the 63+% of the people who hadn't voted for his party. I have been rudely awakened from that dream since then.

Gary Lunn has since been bumped down to Minister of State for Sport. I doubt whether it had anything to do with this, though. There were reports that he was giving wealthy landowners grants from a green fund to aid sustainable development, which actually didn't aid green development - but it sure aided his friends.

The present Minister of Natural Resources is Christian Paradis, Conservative MP from Quebec, smack in the middle of the mining district. The asbestos lobby is housed in Montreal and you can bet your next meal there's no asbestos in their lobby.

I'm so proud.

Climate change effects hit Stevie's backyard

A brief but violent thunderstorm blew through Calgary yesterday accompanied by wind, funnel clouds and golf ball sized hail.

Calgary Southwest is the constituency of Stephen Harper, Our Glorious Leader and climate change denier extraordinare. Never saw a tar sands project he didn't like.

So far this year in various parts of Canada we've had insufferable heat, humidity and polluted air very early in the year, floods on the prairies - you know - where huge amounts of our cereal grains like wheat are grown, tornadoes in Ontario and Quebec, and on and on.

This is a video of what happened to the roof of the greenhouse at the University of Calgary in a few short minutes. Planning to get around climate instability by growing a country's food supply under glass? Maybe the climate deniers should check this out.

Jeremy Dwyer - nineteen-year-old hero

This guy gives me great hope for the future of Canada. Jeremy Dwyer is a human rights activist and artist. He was chosen to represent Newfoundland in an exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in Winnipeg.

When he found out minutes beforehand that Harper would be attending an making a photo-op out of it, he told museum staff that he would not shake hands with Stephen Harper. As Harper made his way down the line, the staff asked Mr. Dwyer to step back so he would not even be given the opportunity to politely decline the handshake.

Then they lied about it.

"...[a] spokesperson told the Telegram newspaper that Dwyer stepped back on his own because he was overwhelmed.

“That's just a ridiculous statement,” said Dwyer. “Stephen Harper does not overwhelm me.”

N.L. teen refuses to shake PM's hand
By SHEENA GOODYEAR, QMI Agency

Bravo, Mr. Dwyer! You are one of the bravest of the millions and millions who are completely underwhelmed by this man.

Opposition leaders adopt non-ostrich stance

Canadian opposition leaders - Michael Ignatieff (Lib.), Jack Layton (NDP) and Gilles Duceppe (Bloc Quebecois) - have finally pulled their heads out of the sand, or wherever they were keeping them, and have decided to set up a committee of inquiry into the G20 "security" violence against peaceful citizens. If the HarpoCons tell their ever compliant members not to show up - and they would obey because they never think for themselves - the committee would founder, as it requires members of all parties.

This would be right up Harper's behavioural alley.

We live in hope, though - the only thing left in Pandora's Box.

That vicious looking woman with the baton towards the end of the video is a cop, by the way, bashing the hell out of someone with - a CAMERA.

Police State Canada

This is video from the protest marches during the G20 summit in Toronto. One billion dollars was spent for "security" at these summits. In spite of the huge outlay, supposed "Black Bloc" protesters smashed windows and committed other crimes while the police did NOTHING.

After a police car was set alight - one that had been mysteriously left abandoned with an empty tank and the gas cap off - it was left to burn. Once again the police did NOTHING.

When peaceful protesters started to march and journalists tried to record the scene, the police weighed in with batons and attacked, brutalized and arrested nearly one thousand people who had done NOTHING.

The treatment of women held in detention at the hands of male police officers was described by one journalist. It is enough to make you sick.

But don't worry. The cops got lots of new toys to use against the next bunch of upstart citizens who dare question anything their thuggish leaders should decide. There are water cannons, police cannons and high powered assault rifles just in case you might get uppity.

Police State Canada from bill johnson on Vimeo.

Canada is Israel...at least in Venezuela

You learn something new every day.

Canada is really earning its stripes as the Israel's new BFF in the whole world.

This from Yves Engler, Montreal activist.

When will Canadians demand Ottawa stand up for justice for Palestinian people?

Compared to Ottawa’s cheerleading, most of the world was hostile to Israel’s actions [Gaza massacre]. Many countries criticized the killing of civilians. In solidarity with Gaza, Venezuela expelled Israel’s ambassador at the start of the bombardment and broke off all diplomatic relations two weeks later. Israel didn’t need to worry, since Ottawa was prepared to help out. The Canadian Embassy in Caracas took over Israel’s diplomatic relations there. Canada officially became Israel, at least in Venezuela.

I'm so proud (not).